In 2002 Tajikistan was able to benefit from its participation in the international antiterrorism coalition to forge closer ties with a number of countries, including the U.S., France, the U.K., China, and Iran. These states, as well as international financial institutions, promised their assistance in overcoming the legacy of widespread poverty and lagging economic development that was left by Tajikistan’s civil war in the first years of independence. In March the Asian Development Bank announced a $2.9 million program to reduce rural poverty, and later in the year the World Bank offered $26.4 million worth of credits to build a power plant in the Pamirs. Development of hydropower was high on the Tajik government’s agenda for stimulating economic growth. Not only could it be used as the basis for domestic industry, but it could also readily be exported to neighbouring countries. Consequently, Tajik officials placed special emphasis on finding foreign investors to help complete Soviet-era hydroelectric projects, in particular that at Rogun.

Despite its own difficult economic situation, Tajikistan promised such assistance as it was able to provide for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. In particular, the Tajiks offered training in various skills, notably for the Afghan military. The improving ties between the two countries were symbolized by the starting of weekly flights between Kabul and Dushanbe.

Although in 2002 there was little evidence that Islamic extremists were entering Tajikistan from outside, the government asserted that there were plenty of the homegrown variety operating in the northern part of the country. The international movement Hizb-ut Tahrir, which sought to create a medieval-style caliphate in the Fergana Valley, had already gained a foothold in the northern, Tajik portion of the valley and was reported to be stepping up distribution of its literature. In July, embarrassed by the fact that there were a few Tajiks among al-Qaeda supporters held in the U.S. camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Pres. Imomali Rakhmonov warned of increasing militancy in the north and accused the Islamic Renaissance Party, a partner in the governing coalition, of encouraging extremism—a charge that the head of the party hotly denied. In August Rakhmonov warned the Muslim clergy to stay out of politics because international press reports of extremism in Tajikistan were undermining efforts to attract foreign investment. Between August and October, 33 of the 152 mosques in the Isfara district in the north were reported to have been closed—Rakhmonov had asserted that there were too many of them—and a number of imams were removed from their posts.